Spiky Treasures of the Canary Islands

Hello and welcome. 🙂

I have fallen in love with micro-arthropods ever since I started keeping things like Mezium affine and Rhyscotus texensis. If they have neat body structures/colors, I could care less about the size and, if anything, it allows you to keep that many more of them! Let me speak to you a tale of how I gained one of my most prized minute species to date.

We must go back weeks and weeks in the time machine once again to meet the moment when I was having a specific chat with someone who will be downright famous over here because of how much he will show up, Anthony Molnar.  We were discussing how a dazzling isopod species I had my eye on had unexplainably crashed for him. No one is quite sure why this ever happened, but he didn't lose every individual. Some time later, his colony thankfully recovered and before I knew it, he had some available. As you can imagine, I locked in a group without hesitation. 😁 Soon enough, I got my box and opened it to find 7 out of the 8 Porcellio sp. "Spiky - Canary" had arrived in perfect shape! Let me talk to you more about these tiny knights in spiky armor.

Porcellio sp. "Spiky - Canary" is an isopod that has yet to be identified down to species-level and comes from the Canary Islands. It has some of the most pronounced texturization of any species in the hobby and so Canarian Spiky Isopod might be a fitting label if common names mean anything to you. Of course, if there's another highly-textured species from the same location, this would be moot. LOL These guys are on the smaller side of the scale for isopods topping out at about 2/3 the size of Porcellio scaber. They begin life white and eventually transition to a slate grey color with purple and/or brown hues showing up in between.

I have my thriving colony set up in a 16 oz. container at the moment with 20 large pinholes poked in the lid for ventilation. The substrate is a mix of compost soil, topsoil, perlite, and cypress mulch, which I keep moderately moist and at around an inch and a half in depth. Besides that, there's a piece of bark in there for hiding, some dead leaves for hiding/consuming, and a baby carrot and piece of cuttlebone for munching on.

Spikier than they are large!

Mixed-size individuals

Enclosure

I hope you all enjoyed and exit with a greater appreciation of the world that extends even deeper than just microfauna and the propensity to squint that much harder at some lil arthropods even just in your neighborhood. That'll be it for now and I'll meet you right where I always do - next post. 🙂

All the Way from Morocco!

Hello and welcome. 🙂

This year has seen so many isopod acquisitions, it isn't even funny. The stack of new isopod posts awaiting publication could measure as high as the total amount of pancakes I've eaten in my life! That considered, we will follow in the familiar trend today with a beauty from the coast of North Africa. Let's begin.

In mid March of this year, I contacted a friend, Alex Menke, to inquire about one of his isopod species. Once he confirmed my assumptions on them, I knew my heart was dead-set on acquiring a group. 😀 I'm unsure why I hesitated, but I ended up hitting him up again about 2 weeks later asking if he might be interested in trading off a starter-colony. I sent him my availability list and he confirmed that he would indeed be up for a trade, but that he'd get back to me on further details at a later time. I was told when he would be freed-up enough to get into contact again, yet when I reached out, there was no immediate response from the man. Soon after, it was made public that he was dealing with a strong illness. Understandably, this pushed the transaction back another week or so. But at long last, the time had come to send out. Alex's end went first and mine the next day. The box arrived at my door on time and I quickly unboxed to see that all (approximately) 10 Porcellio sp. "Morocco" had made the trip! Let's get into detail about these lil buddies of mine. 😊

Porcellio sp. "Morocco" hails from, as the locality name would suggest, Morocco and has yet to be given a complete identification. It is not nearly as large as many of the Porcellio species that have been making their way to the hobby recently being only about twice as large as their relative, Porcellio scaber. Luckily, they make up for what they lack in size with coloration. The majority of the body is encased in a brownish-purple hue, but things get real exciting when you look at the borders of the isopod, which are adorned in striking orange!

I'm keeping my currently populous colony in a 6 qt. Sterilite container with twelve 1/4" ventilation holes on each end of it and sixteen on each side. The substrate is a mix of compost soil, topsoil, perlite, and cypress mulch, which I keep lightly moist and at a depth of around an inch. Besides that, there's a moist clump of sphagnum moss in one of the corners for moisture regulation, 3 pieces of bark for hiding, some dead leaves for hiding/consuming, and a baby carrot and piece of cuttlebone for munching on.

MOROCCAN MAGNIFICENCE. ⬇️

Large individuals

Smaller individual(s)

Mixed-size individuals

Enclosure

It was my pleasure to share another remarkable isopod species with you. 😊 If you're one of the people that are surely out there hoping I post about something different, you're going to want to make sure you tune in next time. 😉 With that said, I'll meet you right where I always do - next post. 🙂

Parcos and Porcellio

Hey Everyone!
I've got some pretty neat updates on a couple species to share with you guys today, both having new babies and one with a new morph! Let's get into them now. 🙂
Firstly, I'm proud to announce the first ever captive breeding of a certain genus for me......Parcoblatta! 😃 Over the last few days one of the two oothecae that I ended up getting from my female P.pennsylvanica hatched yielded fifteen healthy, little nymphs! I really love the look of these first instars compared to the usual, pretty dull-looking Eurycotis hatchlings that I usually get. lol I still have them all housed in the oothecae incubation-container, but will rehouse them once I'm able to pick up some more coconut fiber (likely on Monday).
Enough talk, here's some pics of the puny suckers! LOL

1st instar P.pennsylvanica nymphs

While we were on the topic of P.pennsylvanica, I thought you guys might find it a bit interesting to hear that my remaining two individuals from the first group I ever collected are not long gone like the others, but in fact actually still sub-adults! These particular two individuals have been sub-adults for months now suggesting that they require a diapause in order to mature, which I find very odd considering that the others(which were all close enough in age that I could say that they were probably even from the same ootheca) required no such thing at all! I guess I'll have to give those guys a cool period soon, although I might just wait until they're instars line up with the new batch of nymphs so that I could crossbreed the two generations.....but anyway, that's enough about the Pennsylvanians, let's move onto the second species.
Well, the second and last species that I've had notable developments with are my Porcellio scaber. I hadn't really posted on it or anything, but around a month ago I found a single specimen at one of the forests I regularly collect at and to my surprise it ended up being a gravid female! The reason I mention this is because she finally popped, giving birth to about two dozen mancae! 😄 I have to admit, even though I had heard that this species was very prolific, I still wasn't expecting as many nymphs as I got! lol
Additionally, while on a much more recent collecting trip at a different location, I came across a turned over piece of bark in the moist soil about ten feet off the edge of a small lake. When I flipped this over, much to my delight it was covered in Trachelipus rathkii.....accompanied by the ever elusive Porcellio scaber! I managed to collect about seven individuals including a very nice "Calico" specimen (which happened to be a gravid female)! When I returned home, I eventually added the new guys in with my female and mancae and rehoused them to a slightly larger enclosure.
Here's some pics of both the mancae and my neat "Calico" specimen!

P.scaber mancae

P.scaber"Calico"

Hopefully my "Calico" female ends up producing some similarly patterned mancae for me and I'll see you guys at the next post, goodbye! 😊

Collecting Success and Enclosure Switches

Hey Peeps!(gotta throw in a new intro sometimes) ;)
Well, I've been meaning to make this post for a while, but just never ended up getting to it, please excuse my laziness. LOL A couple weeks ago, I took a trip to this nature preserve that I had only been to once before(before I was seriously into inverts)to look for some rotten wood for a friend of mine. It was a little after four, but since it's winter, it was already pretty dark by that time. I got out my trusty headlamp and went over to the log closest to our car and lifted it up. To my surprise, I had uncovered a nice amount of large, flat, and beautifully-patterned isopods! I collected almost all of the individuals that I saw that day and returned a couple more times ending up with a total of about eighty! During the several trips I made, I also collected about four P.scaber, which despite supposedly being one of the most common isopods in the U.S, are my first individuals that I have ever found, and trust me, I've looked! Although they are very common in the hobby, I loved finally getting my hands on this classic species.
I had originally tentatively identified the isopods that I had found as Oniscus asellus, but fortunately I was given the correct I.D by Alan Jeon. He said that they were actually Porcellio spinicornis, a lovely species that I had been wanting to get a hold of for awhile now! Also, I forgot to mention that out of the eighty or so P.spinicornis that I found, there were a couple very light colored individuals and some unusually large ones too!
Firstly, I'm currently keeping the normal P.spinicornis in a medium-sized, plastic Zip Lock container with twelve ventilation holes in each end. I'm using a substrate mix of coconut fiber and rotten wood with some dead leaves on top. I also have a piece of egg crate in there for them to hide under.
Here's some pics!

P.spinicornis

P.spinicornis enclosure

Secondly, I'm keeping my four P.spinicornis "White"(I call them this, but they do still have some of their markings) in a small, plastic container with a highly ventilated lid(my A .maculatums' old enclosure)where I will try to isolate the trait. I'm keeping them with the same substrate as the normal ones. Additionally, I have a small piece of cork bark in the enclosure for them to hide under.
Here's a few photos!

P.spinicornis "White"

P.spinicornis "White" enclosure

Thirdly, I am currently keeping my ten or so P.spinicornis "Giant" in a medium sized(although larger than the normal P.spinicornis enclosure)plastic Sterilite container with seven ventilation holes on each end and twenty ventilation holes on each side. I'm using the same substrate for these guys as with the normal and "White" P.spinicornis. I also have a couple pieces of cork bark and a piece of egg crate in there to serve as hides.
Here some more pics!

P.spiicornis "Giant"

P.spinicornis "Giant" enclosure

As I said, I originally though that these guys were O.asellus, which I wanted to try an create a stable population of  "Giant" individuals with, so that was the main reason for setting up the largest ones in a separate, low-isolation enclosure. However, since these guys obviously don't have the same size potential as O.asellus, I think I may just make this the normal P.spinicornis enclosure.
I also mentioned that I collected four P.scaber, which I am currently keeping in a two-ounce, plastic deli-cup. I'm keeping these guys on the same substrate as the P.spinicornis(and all my other isopods) with a small piece of egg crate for them to hide under.
I figured I wouldn't show any pictures of their container, since it's so simple, but here's some pics of them!

P.scaber

A last couple things I was going to share with you guys today were a couple enclosure switches. Since I bought a two-pack of the medium-sized Zip Lock containers, after using one for the normal P.spinicornis, I still had one left. I decided to us it for one of my favorite species, my P.pruinosus! So I them, their substrate, and hides into the new, larger enclosure. I was left with their old enclosure, which I then transferred my A.maculatum into in order to make room for the P.spinicornis"White" which took the A.macultums' enclosure. Pretty complicated right? LOL
Here's some pics of the powder blues' and the zebras' new set-ups!

New P.pruinosus enclosure

New A.maculatum enclosure

By the way, just in case you were wondering, I have the same amount of ventilation holes in the new P.pruinosus enclosure as in the P.spinicornis enclosure.
Thank you all for reading another one of my very long posts and have a good night guys! :)